Decision Making Unit (DMU): B2B & B2C Buying Center [+ Example]

A Decision Making Unit (DMU) shows who will be involved in the buying process, but how do you find these people?

You have a product or service that you want to sell, but in order to do so you first need to convince several people.

I’m going to show you:

• What a Decision Making Unit is
• Which roles there are in a DMU
• And how you find the people in your DMU

Let’s start with an explanation…

What is a Decision Making Unit?

A Decision Making Unit is a small group of people who influence a particular purchase or decision process.

The DMU is primarily used in B2B purchasing, but can also be used to visualize people who influence the B2C decision process.

Why set up a Decision Making Unit?

A B2C purchase usually comes from a need…

The Decision Making Unit is often the same for almost all B2C purchases, it mostly includes:

• Colleagues
• Friends
• Acquaintances
• Family

A B2B purchase (and sometimes a large B2C purchase) has a more complex decision making process.

It involves all kinds of people with different responsibilities, interests, and (information) needs.

To complete the purchase, there are all kinds of different people you need to consider.

The Decision Making Unit Canvas helps you to document the different roles, this makes sure that you can act on them with your team.

6 parts of a Decision Making Unit

There are 6 roles in each DMU:

I will explain the different roles to you:

1. End-users

The ones who have to deal with the outcome…

The end-users are going to use your product or service. When developing your product or service, it is important to gather a lot of feedback from the end-users.

They are the ones whose opinion is important in deciding whether the purchase was worth it.

B2B Example

Suppose a company wants to buy a new office building…

The end users are the employees who will work in the office building.

B2C Example

Suppose a man wants to buy a new car…

Then the end-users are the man who drives the car and the family that rides along.

2. Influencers

The influencers influence the initiators and decision makers.

They do not necessarily have to be people within the organization or within the family, they can also be consultants or acquaintances.

B2B Example

A consultant recommends an office building in the middle of the city, as this looks more reliable to customers and so employees don’t have to travel far.

B2C Example

A friend says that his Tesla drives perfectly and that he has never had such a nice car.

3. Initiator

The initiator is the one who is experiencing the problem…

This person wants the problem solved and is intrinsically motivated to do so. The initiators are probably the ones who need to start convincing the rest of the DMU to seek a solution or purchase a solution.

B2B Example

The HR manager notices that there is not enough space for all employees to work well.

In this case, the HR manager will need to convince the CFO and/or CEO to look at a new office building.

B2C Example

All the man’s close friends are buying a new car…

The man doesn’t want to fall behind his friends and needs to convince his wife to buy a new car.

4. Economic buyer

The economic buyer is the person who manages the money and must permit to spend that money.

These are often the people who negotiate, for example, the price.

B2B Example

The CFO negotiates with party Y to agree on a price and to free up funds.

B2C Example

The husband and wife together may decide to spend their money on a new car.

5. Decision maker

The decision maker is the person who is last to decide whether a decision is going to be made.

They have the power and authority to exercise the final say and are ultimately responsible for the decision made.

Often the economic buyer and the decision maker are the same person.

B2B Example

The CEO of the company is the one who ultimately decides whether the new office building will be purchased.

B2C Example

The husband and wife can decide together whether to buy the car.

6. Gatekeeper

The gatekeepers’ job is to keep you out…

Think of a secretary who needs to protect the time of important people or people who need to protect their own interest and keep you out.

B2B Example

The landlord (saboteur) of the existing office building might offer additional space to keep the company from leaving.

In addition, a gatekeeper could be a secretary tasked with protecting the CEO’s and/or CFO’s time.

B2C Example

The wife could be a gatekeeper, perhaps she thinks a new car is a waste of money that could be better spent.

How to identify the members of your Decision Making Unit

Download the Decision Making Unit Canvas and complete it with me:

To map out the DMU, you need to get to know your customers well…

It is important to know the following:

1. Demographic:
   • .Sex
   • Age
   • Income
   • Marital status
   • Education level
   • Ethnicity
   • Sexual orientation
   • Family composition
   • Religion
   • Years of work experience
2. Geographic:
   • Location
   • Climate
   • Cultural preferences
   • Language
   • Environment type (urban, suburban, rural)
3. Behavioral:
   • Purchasing behavior (thought process at buying)
   • Occasion purchasing (when do customers buy)
   • Customer usage (how frequently does a customer use)
   • Benefits (why does a customer buy)
   • Loyalty gauge (how much do customers care about brand)
   • Buying stage (where in the buying process is your customer)
4. Firmo- and technographic:
   • Industry type
   • Location
   • Organizational size
   • Annual revenue
   • Target customers
   • Organizational structure
   • Tools and technologies used
5. Psychographic:
   • Personality (DISC)
   • Lifestyle
   • Interests
   • Life goals
   • Hobbies
   • Values (like durability)

Besides that, it’s also interesting to know the following:

• What their name is
• The title or position they hold
• What this person’s impact is on the decision process
• Why this person is involved in the decision-making process
• What the priorities and goals are that you can start helping this person with
• Who this person is influenced by
• What information this person needs
• Which points could be possible deal breakers
• What arguments weigh heavily

You can find out by:

• Thinking logically… 😉
• Searching on LinkedIn
• Having customer conversations
• Asking experts for their opinion
• Looking at the competition
• Brainstorming with your company

Uncover 5 rings of buying insights

1. Priority initiatives: uncover what really drives decision makers to making a decision. Examples:
   • “We know that new tooling will help us grow and new projects will justify the decision.”
   • We regularly replace old tooling because of technical issues.”
2. Success factors: which tangible and intangible rewards does a buyer expect to experience after purchasing a solution, and why. Examples:
   • “We’ll have confidence that we can get the work done on time.”
   • “Our customers and subcontractors will be impressed and bring us more business.”
3. Perceived barriers: uncover why some buyers wouldn’t perceive your company or solution as their best option. Examples:
   • “It’s really hard to compare manufacturers.”
   • “We get the best service by working with locally owned companies.”
4. Buyer’s journey: uncover which buyers are involved in the decision and what resources they trust to guide their decisions. Examples:
   • “How easy will it be for our operators to adapt to it?”
   • “We’ll pay more to buy the brand that we, and our peers, trust.”
5. Decision criteria: uncover what criteria buyers use to evaluate solution options and make a purchase decision, and why they use these criteria. Examples:
   • “I always compare different manufacturers’ their pricing and terms.”
   • “I always make sure that all our employees are on board with our decisions.”

Customer interviews with the STAR-method

Be careful when having customer conversations that you don’t ask in the direction of your product

The ‘mom test’ provides a nice visualization of this:

The STAR-method is a structured way to do an interview:

1. S(ituational) questions: questions that map the situation, they are often open-ended questions used to define the scope.
2. T(ension) questions: questions that have to expose frictions, annoyances and pain points. Pay attention to non-verbal clues.
3. A(ffect) questions: questions that map out the impact, effect, consequences and repercussions of the pain points. Map out both the business and personal impact of pain points. This also creates a form of urgency.
4. R(esolve) questions: questions that will determine a direction for the solution, which also looks at the preconditions of the solution. Here you can clearly see how motivated the client is to get moving. With the Resolve questions you transform the Pain into a Gain.
5. R(eflection) questions: questions that evaluate the solution and map out how a person has experienced something.

Other communication techniques are:

• OHC: stand (o)pen for the other, be (h)onest in what you want to make clear and be genuinely (c)urious.
• DFITB: don’t fill in the blanks for another, you never know what the other is going to say or wants to say.
• TIQ: think in terms of qualities, pay attention to what goes well.
• AANA: always ask, never assume.
• LSQ: listen, summarize and ask further questions.

Consultative selling

Good salespeople are not just talking, but listening.

There is a big difference in traditional selling and consultative selling:

Traditional selling	Advising selling
Focus on the product	Focus on the customer
Aimed at the price	Aimed on value for the customer
Thinks everyone needs their product	Takes a good look at the needs of the customer
Uses a standard pitch	Listens actively to the customer and asks good questions
Short-term customer relationship	Long-term customer relationship

There are a number of elements that go into consultative selling:

• Investigating: ask questions to find out the root cause in your customer’s question.
• Listening: to find out what your customer needs you need to listen actively, spend 80% of your time listening and 20% talking.
• Inform: in many cases your potential customers have already researched online, you need to help them make an informed decision.
• Customize: tailor the customer experience, you don’t want to overtly tout your product. drop into the conversation how the product could be useful to your potential customer.
• Encourage questions: customers who ask for details send a clear buying signal.
• Opportunity: if your potential customer knows in detail what they want and/or complains about current suppliers then it is good to clarify what sets you apart from the competition.

Identify the problem

If you know who is in the Decision Making Unit you can start mapping out how a problem flows through a particular organization…

I’ve created an example for you of a company that lacks expertise in and/or marketing capacity:

You could expand this to include components such as what kind of information someone needs, how big any costs might be, or what important other factors are.

Client objections generally fall into four categories:

• Lack of budget
• Lack of confidence
• Lack of urgency
• Lack of necessity

Be sure to arm yourself on these.

What is your decision?

So, now you are armed with enough information to see who is influencing your decision making process…

Now I ask you, are you going to decide to build your DMU, or are you going to keep throwing spaghetti into a wall to see what sticks?

Let me know in a comment what you think of the Decision Making Unit Canvas.

P.S. if you would like additional help let me know at [email protected]

Tip: use the TAM SAM SOM model to find your most potential customers.

Frequently asked questions